"I think that children have a power to imagine that is almost magical when compared to the adult imagination, and this is something irrevocable that a child loses when he or she becomes bound by logic. We adults continue to have our children's power of imagination only in our dreams..
. Of course it's awfully necessary that children not run their entire lives on the basis of such thinking; they do need to learn how to think logically. But the world will soon teach that to them -and in overabundance.I think we should do everything we can to make it possible for children to hang onto the power to imagine in the almost magical sense for as long as possible. " A mere description of the same event by a grown-up and an adult is clearly distinguishable.
Their comparison will suggest that the c
...hild will make it sound emotion filled, more imaginable to the listener and the adult will summarize and emphasize on the 'important' aspects. Also, the child's perception of the event will bring out certain 'invisible' aspects and will sound less stereo-type than the adult's view of the matter.The author starts the book by expressing his discomfort about the absorption of a child's mind by logic as he grows in a social environment full of stereo-type grown-ups. He refers to the grown-ups as those who were unable to comprehend his illustration of a boa constrictor like he did and who discouraged him to waste his time in creative aspects. These grownups always emphasize on the importance of the education from educational institutions and on the study on conventional subjects.
I admit that if I wer
shown the drawing '1' of the author and were expected to say "Hey, this is a boa constrictor swallowing an animal, I, myself, disagreed that it was anything more than a hat. As Mr. Weizenbaum puts it, children go on to learn logical aspects which suppresses the creativity in them. Soon after the comprehension of this fact within the first few pages of the book I realized that I was a victim too. The narrator goes on to meet the little prince one day at the Sahara desert, where he landed up because he had to crash land his plane.
The little prince seems to represent the very creative, child-like aspects the narrator introduces us to. He seems to be full of wonder and open in terms of comprehension, in his interactions with all the characters of the book. The narrator discovers that the prince is from another planet, Asteroid 325, and he lives alone. This seems to represent the loneliness of a child in terms of having a companion who thinks like him, that is, unlike the grown-ups. The little prince confesses the baobab plants are a menace on his problem and he identifies and uproots them.This is because as it grows it the roots will deepen their hold on the ground ultimately absorbing his little planet.
So the tree is an issue which starts out small but can end up being a major problem in the future and preventive measures must be taken to curb it. This itself seems to be a lesson to learn, for me. The Little prince says that on his planet he had a flower growing which looked very beautiful
although it looked unlike all the other flowers. He took good care of it. One day the rose told him that his planet was too cold unlike where she came from.
He discovered that this was a lie since she had grown from a seed on his planet and so he left her because she didn't reciprocate his love and care. He went on a voyage to visit neighboring asteroids and encountered 'weird', narrow minded people. These included a king, a vain man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer. Their conversations with him and the very fact that he finds most of them strange suggests that they posses typical qualities of grown-ups, in other words, stereo-type adults of the world who believe in being reasonable, practical.First he meets the king who claims he reigns the entire universe even though he sits alone on his planet and ends up commanding his 'subjects' to do only what they are able to do. The king attempts at making the little prince his own 'subject' which makes him seem hungry to have power.
He seems much similar to political organizations today campaign to 'Come to power', as they say, but literally nothing else.Then he meets a man who wears a hat at all times and is hungry for appraisal for he asks the little prince to clap for him and acknowledges this 'forced appraisal' with his hat. I agree with the prince that he is weird to find himself the richest, most- handsome man on his planet since he is the only one on it. In actuality I feel everybody strives to do something or the other
to seek admiration in society just like him. Next, he meets a drunkard who confesses he drinks to forget the shameful fact that he drinks.He doesn't seek companionship in the little prince and chooses to be left alone to drink.
Another weirdo, although he is quite a stereotype of the world we live in, in the context that, grown-ups like him never attempt at solving a problem, drinking habit in his case, instead they choose to ignore it and let things get worse. Then on the next planet he meets a businessman who is too busy to answer his questions. The man lays absorbed in his work which involves counting stars and owning the ones he counts, supposedly, on the context that he sees them first.The little prince makes an interesting remark saying that these stars he claims to own aren't as serious as he perceives them to be. The way he takes care of his possessions, that is the three volcanoes and a flower seem to be a more worthwhile ownership.
This is evident in the real world in the sense this businessman is a stereotype for the businessmen of our world and both claim to 'own' things the name of their 'entity' but this ownership isn't really worth being called an ownership because they are of no use to such things.Besides they ignore more important, invisible things of life for which they can make a significant difference. The prince finds the lamplighter's job beautiful and finds the man himself less weird than the others hes met and thinks he is someone he can make friendship with. The lamplighter seems to follow his job
with dedication and the prince gives him some advice to make his job easier before discovering that he wants to sleep. Then little prince meets geographer who writes books using the information from explorers who comes to him and he finds their characters sound enough.He also mentions that flowers like the one of the little prince's planet aren't considered because their existence is limited.
The prince realizes that the flower he loved so much won't live long. After meeting a railway switchman the prince discovers that unsatisfied people travel in these trains back and forth and indeed, only children enjoy their journeys. Indeed grownups do certain things repeatedly to gain satisfaction unlike children who try to gain maximum satisfaction the very first time. He also meets a sales clerk who claims that his pill can save people's time by quenching their thirst.
People of the real world similarly, in a haste, try as much to save their precious time, which they end up wasting, instead of having spent that time in doing their original task efficiently. On the earth the prince meets a snake who informs him of his poison that can send him home. Being sent home could symbolize being sent where he returned from, away from the earth full of pragmatic grownups. At the rose garden the prince realizes that the rose on his planet was not special for the reasons she claimed to be, although he misses her from time to time ever since he left. There were many like her in the garden.But the fox teaches him 3 lessons.
He says important things in life can be only seen from the heart,
that the rose on his planet is special to him because he has taken care of her and having stayed away from her his love should only grow stronger and that with love comes responsibility. He also says it in context with taming an animal. The prince misses the rose even more. On the eight day they wander in the desert, or rather a lonely land without creative open minded people, in search of water.
He mentions that he'd rather use his time walk slowly to a well than try to save it.He says that would give him more joy in obtaining the refreshing liquid inside it than to save time by consuming the salesclerk's pill. Indeed, there is no joy in consuming a mere pill as a substitute for food or any other form of nourishment, just to save time. The book tells us much about how we loose many qualities as we become more mature and realizes what is true and what is not.
The fox said "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. This shows how people take many things for granted and we do not appreciate what we have.We are selfish people that always want more and more. Sometimes we don't see the world as it really is. Sometimes we need to actually experience it to see what is going on. We have to start to think about reality and all of the others out their in our world which are neglected and in need.
That is why it
is only with the heart that one can see rightly. Only with the heart will we start being selfless and make society a better place to live in.
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